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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23698618">Return to a slight normality</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erin_kate/pseuds/Erin_kate'>Erin_kate</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Monster High</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Disorders, Fanfic, Gen, Hospital, Monster High - Freeform, Monsters, Nightmare Before Christmas References, Teenagers, mh</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:28:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,501</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23698618</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erin_kate/pseuds/Erin_kate</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where the ghouls from Monster High are in a teenage psych ward for varying reasons and are trying to return to what their previous state of normality was, and are sticking together through the rough times and the good times.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Welcomes and Wishes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Warning - This story contains characters with mental health issues on a ward. If anything like this upsets you, I recommend you don’t read. Also, I have tried to depict these disorders as well as I can, however I know it won’t be perfect so do bear with me. Leave comments below how I can make it more realistic please - I would really like to improve. :)</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Frankie is brought into the Bloodgood Hospital’s psych ward and meets the ghouls she’s going to be spending her time with.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Frankie sat in the hospital waiting chair, bouncing her leg rapidly up and down in time to the beat of the random pop song that was playing over the speakers. She was nervous to say the least - she was being flung from her home, one that she knew well and loved, and was being put here, on a psych ward. It’s quite a weird thing, she thought, the fact that they place a bunch of messed up teens like me into one place and expect them to get along with each other and miraculously recover.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>However, she knew she wasn’t really one to question her countries health system. This was Scaremerica after all, and the government could decide what to do of their own accord. She had faith in them to do what was right, after all she was only technically a year old.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She knew something was wrong with her. Which quite frankly was a good thing - at least she was able to accept she needed help.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The nurse who had led her inside earlier walked back over to the ghoul with jet-black hair and offered her a hand to stand up. Frankie nervously took it, looking around at the room she’d been sat in properly. It was very sterile-seeming ; white walls, white chairs, white desks.... the only visible pop of colour was in the nurses uniforms, which, while it was only a muted baby blue, created a nice contrast to the blinding white around.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“So, Ms. Stein, I’m one of the nurses on your ward who’s going to be helping you and the other ghouls get better. My names Nurse Skellington, but you can just call me Sally, everyone does. It seems you and I are rather alike!” She gestured to Frankie’s hand stitches and then to her own stitches holding her limbs in place.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We try to make everyone here as comfortable as possible and we don’t want to enforce too many rules, so just listen to the staff on duty and we won’t have any problems - understood?” Frankie hooded meekly, keeping her usually bubbly and talkative nature under wraps for the time being.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Okay, have you got any questions before we go in Frankie?” Sally looked the girl in her green/blue eyes as she saw a look of though cloud over her face.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I have a few but they probably aren’t related to what you’re actually asking. So I’ll just ask... how many people are actually on the ward?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>”We can hold up to 15 usually but at the moment we only have 8. It’s an all-girls ward here, we keep the boys in a separate area as we find it easier.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The green monster grinned at the thought of an all-girls ward. They could have slumber parties, salons, all sorts! ”Fair enough. Can we go now? I really wanna see my new bedroom. I have like, a gazillion plans for it. I’m gonna paint it green and black and there’ll be this-“</p>
<p> </p>
<p>”Woah, Frankie, slow down a little, I can’t process stuff that fast. We can help you decorate your room but we can’t have it too overboard. And yes, let’s go.” The nurse began walking down the corridor and Frankie followed her eagerly, excited to see the new ghouls she’d be staying with. Even under the weird terms as to why they were there, she still wanted to make some new fangtastic ghoulfriends!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Their footsteps echoed as they walked down the rather narrow hallways, and Frankie could hear some weird alarms coming from the wards around her which rung out for some time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Okay so I’m gonna give you a little tour before we actually go and meet the rest of the other patients, just so you know what’s where and when to go there and all that jazz!” She stayed jokingly, doing a small round of jazz hands afterwards. Frankie did the same, laughing as they walked into the first room.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This room had two large TV’s in one corner with some gaming consoles and remotes hooked up to and laying beside it. The windows were bolted shut but the blinds were up, filling the room with enough sunlight to make the room feel warmer. In the opposite corner to the TV’s was a large table football table, and hanging all along the walls were different posters of bands and games.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“If you couldn’t tell, this is the games room. This is where you normally spend most of your day after school hours are over, but you can spend it in your room too.” Sally smiled at me and then turned to walk outside. Frankie stood staring at the posters a little longer, appreciating the ‘Rolling Bones’ one hanging on the far left - they were her favourite band at the moment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She turned to follow the nurse quickly, who was further down the corridor. They stopped outside a locked door, which Sally proceeded to open. It was filled with cabinets stuffed to the brim with bottles of pills and other medicines, as well as bandages and antiseptics.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“This is the medicine room. You aren’t allowed to be in here without a nurse assisting you, so don’t try and get in. We have cameras monitoring it. All he medication for you guys is stored in here for when you need to take it, you’ll have a router pinned up on your wall or on the back of your door.” They briskly exited again and walked along the corridor once more, pausing at an intersection. Sally gestured to the right.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“To the right here is all of the dorm rooms. You aren’t allowed to go into someone else’s dorm without their permission and a nurses permission. Once again, if we catch you breaking the rules, there will be trouble. Lights off is at 10 so you can do pretty much anything you want until then. I’ll show you your dorm room after we’ve met everyone else.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They continued on down the left of the intersection of the hallway, until they got to a large pair of double doors.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“This is the canteen. There’s a set meal router of different dishes, and you can choose what you want from there. We always have vegan and vegetarian options, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Breakfast is from 8-9, Lunch is 12:30-1:30 and dinner is from 6-7. You can sit anywhere you want and with whoever you want. The only exception to all of this is the people who are in here for eating disorders who sit with a nurse in the corner. Don’t disturb them please, meal times aren’t the best for them.” Looking inside of the double doors through the glass panes in the centre, Frankie could see a girl with long, blonde hair sat with a nurse in the pale blue uniform, and assumed she must be one of the people with an eating disorder - after all, by the time on her watch, lunch had technically finished 10 minutes ago.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As they walked down the corridor the nice more to the last set of doors in the immediate vicinity, the nurse turned to Frankie once more. “There’s also scheduled times for therapy sessions and all that, but you’ll get a timetable for that and it’ll have the room number of which room you’ll be having it in. The therapy rooms are just at the end of the dormitory corridor, so you should be able to find that yourself.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They walked inside the final door to reveal what looked like a large lounge area, with a few black sofas, a desk full of drawing supplies, a bookshelf stuffed to the brim with different novels and an old-fashioned record player in the corner. However, there we actually ghouls in this room - 6 to be exact.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The first ghoul Frankie first layer eyes on had chocolate brown skin and dark eyes, with her hair colour just slightly darker than her skin, which went curling down just past her shoulders. She had ears on the top of her head too, brown furry ones to match her hair the lay twitched every so often. She had on a purple Echosmith shirt covered with a fur-laced black denim jacket and a black miniskirt, with a set of gold flats to finish off the look. She was sat on the windowsill next to the record player, while another ghouls spun around next to her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This ghoul had pink-tinged skin and stunning long black hair with pink highlights, which she had in thick bunches to either side of her head that went down her short body all the way to her hips. She had a pink crop-top on and black nike sports leggings, and appeared to have stuck a bunch of fake flower tattoos on to her arms, which contrasted nicely with her skin tone. She span around the room almost effortlessly, grinning to show of a sharp pair of fangs in her mouth.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over by the bookshelf was a ghoul with pale white skin and baby-blue hair, with a pair of red glasses nicely framing her face. She had on a long-sleeved blue and white striped shirt and a pair of red shorts, with a pair of completely black Dc. Martins on. She looked quite short, but that was most likely due to the fact that she was pretty slouched over, even in a standing position. She was leaning against the bookshelf reading, seemingly playing no attention to the others.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over in the other corner by the art supplies was a girl with dark black hair with golden streaks in, with a nice tanned complexion. She had on a light blue off the shoulder top and a golden miniskirt, with black accents around the waistband. She had also accessorised the outfit with a plethora of wraps/bandages, most of which seemed to glisten almost as if they were sheets of gold. She was re-arranging a jar of coloured pencils, and telling the brown-haired girl to turn the music off.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>At the desk next to the art supplies was a girl with green and purple hair cascading down her back with a pale purple skin tone. She looked small, even sat down you could tell she was petite compared to the other ghouls. She wasn’t wearing anything fancy, just a lavender hoodie and a pair of ripped jeans, and a fluffy pair of white socks that Frankie assumes were just for comfort. She was sat silently drawing with her headphones plugged into her Eye-player, and she was lightly tapping her foot in time to her music.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The final ghoul to complete the six was a girl with light blue shin and long white hair with pink highlights in. She was wearing a white t-shirt with a fluffy blue cardigan over it, and a pair of acid-washed denim jeans to round out the outfit. She was lying on the sofa in a sort of peculiar way, her head hanging off the edge and her legs up in the air so that all the blood would be rushing to her head. It was quite a weird way of sitting, Frankie thought to herself, but she shrugged it off.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>At the realisation that someone else was in the room, at the ghouls turned to face Sally and Frankie, quickly stopping what they were previously doing to look at the pair of them. Frankie smiles and waved happily, grinning at her new comrades.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Ghouls, I want you all to meet Frankie. She’s new on the ward as I guess you can all tell. Frankie, why don’t you introduce yourself?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Okay then. Well.... hi! I’m Frankie Stein, I’m 1 year old technically, my dad made me in a lab, but I have the same mental age of a 16 year old. I have PTSD and ADHD, but like we don’t need to get into that. And yeah! I love the Rolling Bones and I bet I can beat any of you at Just Dance!” She laughed. The others looked at her with mixed expressions, some smiling and some looking plain confused - the confusion more-so coming from the girl with the white and pink hair who had at this pointed turned the right way up.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Okay,” Sally said, turning to look at the other girls in the room, “Everyone introduce yourself and tell Frankie a little but about you!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The chocolate-haired girls spoke up first, after pausing the record player quickly. “Hi ghoul, I’m Clawdeen Wolf, and I think you may have guessed already but anyhow, I’m a werewolf. I have depression, so...yeah. I also have a really large family, since us wolves typically have a lotta cubs so.... watch out when visiting hours come around. I love music and fashion and I really wanna open a salon when I’m older, because I think it would be pawsome for people to actually come to me to like, get styled and all that stuff.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The rosy-skinned girl spoke up next. “Hiiii ghoul, I’m Draculaura! I’m a vampire but like, I don’t wanna suck your blood or anything. I’m a vegan, so I don’t do any of that stuff, but it does mean I have to take blood replacement pills every mealtime. I have anxiety, but it’s not really like, social anxiety, it’s more separation anxiety so I do kinda come off a little clingy. My family moved from Transylvania so that’s why I have an accent, and I love to dance and like flying around as a bat!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Next was the golden bandages girl. “My name is Cleo DeNile, I used to be Pharaoh over my people, so yes, you are talking to royalty. I have a sister, Nefera, who is actually a nurse here but she works on the children’s ER section. We don’t get along too well so I’m glad she’s not right next to me. I have OCD, and I would really love to become an events organised because one, I just adore being the boss and telling people what to do and two, organising stuff has kind of became my forte.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Frankie looked over at the pale girl who was reading before, but she didn’t say anything. Instead she started to sign a bunch of stuff, and the green ghoul tried to understand she didn’t know sign language. After around a minute, Cleo spoke up again. “So as you may have realised, Ghoulia over there doesn’t speak so I kind of translate what she signs. She said she suffers from a type of psychosis, she loves reading and science and her dream is to win a Fear-Bel prize in Biteology or Clawculus ; she’s like mega-smart.” Ghoulia nodded along to this slowly, giving Frankie a small smile which Frankie returned.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Next to speak up, well speak up was pushing it, was the green and purple haired ghoul at the desk. “Hi.... I’m Twyla and my Dad’s the Boogey man. So I can hide in the shadows which is kinda cool. I have pretty bad social anxiety, when I’m in public especially, and my favourite thing to do is draw and do artsy things. I love art like, a lot....”  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>She then turned to the white and pink haired ghouls in the sofa, who was now doing a wall handstand.“Am Abbie Bominable. Am from Himilayas where it is very cold so I like keeping windows open.” She spoke with a thick accent, so Frankie presumed this may not be her first language. “Am daughter of Yeti, so yes. I has anger issues apparently, but I no see what all that is about. I like ice skating and skiing, and would love to make it to the Fear-Lympics one day to represent country. Would be honour.” Abbey then stood back upright, smiling slightly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I do believe that’s everyone the-“ Just as Sally was about to finish her sentence, the blonde haired girl that Frankie has seen in the dining room earlier burst in. She has pale blue scales covering her body and was wearing a baggy pink hoodie and leggings, which hung off her thin frame loosely. She had a smile plastered on her face as she walked in.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“G’day guys! Who’s got Wii Sports up- oh hey Sally! Who’s the new girl?” The blonde’s eyes locked into Frankies and she grinned at her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Okay two things Lagoona. One, you’re banned from Wii Sports and you know it. And two, this is Frankie, she’s new. Introduce yourself please.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Okie dokie. Well, hi Frankie, I’m Lagoona. If you can’t tell I’m Australian and I’m a sea monster from the Great Scarrier Reef down under. I love playing sports, especially swimming, but they don’t have anywhere to do all that here which is a shame. So yeah. Great to meet ya!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Okay Frankie, were gonna take you down to your room. The rest of you need to be getting to the classroom in a few minutes so I suggest you get going now. Lagoona, I want to borrow you for a second.” The rest of the girls began to file out of the room, with Clawdeen and Draculaura giving Frankie a small wave and a wide grin respectively. Sally then turned to face Lagoona.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Lagoona, stop playing Wii Sports, or we’re gonna have to ban you from using the Wii.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Seriously Sally? I broke one little window because I was getting too into golf, I said I was sorry! I’ll wear the safety straps next time.” She hung her head begrudgingly, and Sally shook her head.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You know it’s not because of that. I don’t want you playing it again. Now get to lessons.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Okie dokie. Bye Frankie!” Lagoona waved back at Frankie before she dashed off to join the others down the hallway. Sally sighed and turned to Frankie.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Sorry about that. We can never get her off that game no matter how hard we try. Anyway, let’s get you to your room. It’s pretty bare right now but you can get posters and make stuff for it and all sorts.” They began walking towards the dorms, Frankie bounding up and down and spinning around in circles as they walked.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I don’t know what exactly I was expecting this place to be like but it’s much nicer than I thought it would be. But you guys would make it less white and add like, some nice pictures onto the walls of rainbows and flowers or something. It would help put people at ease more.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I guess you’re right Frankie. But keeping it white helps us find any dirt much easier, and I’m not sure the board of the hospital would agree for a rainbow mural to be painted on the wall - it would take a long time to dry after all.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Meet-ups and Mealtimes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Frankie gets to know her fellow patients a little bit better, and discovers a rivalry over dinner.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The green ghoul sat on her bed looking at her walls in silent harmony. The once bare pearly white walls were now covered in posters and assorted pictures, accompanied by a plethora of fairy light shaped like lightning bolts that emitted a soft yellow glow. The wooden desk was now littered with Frankies items, such as a large collection of Pop! Figurines of her favourite Disney characters and a pile of stamps, envelopes and paper in the corner ; she had promised everyone she would write to them after all, and Frankie Stein never broke a promise.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>At least, never on purpose.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was now 3:10PM, and Frankie was waiting for the rest of the ghouls on the ward to return from the on-site school that the hospital ran. It has been tedious last two hours - Frankie liked to be surrounded by people, not left to delve into her own thoughts - but now they were supposed to be returning, she was excited to befriend the other patients. They had all seemed likeable enough, though some of them were a little quiet. But that might have just been the extrovert inside her talking.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She heard a scuffle of shoes and a loud bubble of chatter down the hall and assumed that was the other ghouls, so she jumped up from her bed and raced out to see them.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And there they were. Clawdeen was at the front of the group, looking pretty tired as Draculaura babbled to her happily, oblivious of her friend not wanting to chat right then and there. Behind them was Cleo and Ghoulia, and the latter seemed to be trying to explain something to the other, with seemingly minimal success judging by the look that was on Cleo’s face. And finally followed Lagoona, Abbey and Twyla, who all seemed to just be chatting pleasantly , though Lagoona seemed to be spinning in circles rapidly, much to the confusion of the other two.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They all filed into the main lounge area happily, and Frankie walked over to join them. All of them resumed that positions they had been in before, except Lagoona was now here and had begun to set up the Wii.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Draculaura walked over to Frankie, with Clawdeen in tow, a big smile plastered onto her face. “Hiiiii! I’m Draculaura and this is Clawdeen. I’m sure you already knew that though, we did just introduce ourselves.” The petite vampire giggled lightly and Frankie laughed along with her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Yeah, I’ve not got that of a bad memory. Nice to meet‘cha!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The chocolate-haired werewolf, Clawdeen, stepped forward. “So, why’d they chuck you in here? You seem pretty normal if I do say so myself, but like....”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Oh y’know. My PTSD was really out of control for like a good month, so they decided it would be best if I stayed in a controlled environment to try and keep it at bay... what about you guys?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well, I have anxiety and my panic attacks were getting a bit out of hand, and were lasting a lot longer than usual, so they thought it would be best to see what was causing it. And Clawdeen, well....”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The werewolf cut the vampire off in a monotone voice. “Suicide watch. Cutting. All that stuff, I don’t like talking about it.” Frankie nodded her head understandingly - even though they were all a bit ‘messed up’ here to put it in her own words, it was still hard to talk about. Across the room, Lagoona piped up.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Hey Abbey, can you help me? I think they’ve disabled the Wii....” The sea-monster was fiddling with a bunch of wires behind the TV, in a desperate attempt to get the console working.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Abbey shook her head. “No. I no help you do thing you aren’t meant to do.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Oh c’mon Abbey, please? Just today, I promise. We can do Tennis, I know it’s your favourite.” There was a hint of desperation in the ghouls voice as she turned to face the other.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The yeti’s face clouded over as she stood, thinking over her options. “Fine. But if you get in trouble, I not part of this.” She walked over to the Wii and started helping Lagoona with the wires, much to the latters delight.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Frankie turned to Draculaura. “Why isn’t she allowed to play on Wii Sports? It’s rather specific.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well if you couldn’t tell, Lagoona is anorexic.” Draculaura motioned to Lagoona’s thin frame and the clothes that hung loosely on her. “She tried to play Wii Sports as much as she can to burn calories, so she’s banned from it. But no matter how many times they ban it, she always gets on.” The vampire sighed and shook her head slowly, and Frankie frowned.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She walked over to the art supplies, looking over the selection of mediums they had. Paints, felt tips, crayons, pencils.... it wasn’t a bad collection. She turned around, accidentally catching her foot on the chair next to the desk and tripping herself up, causing her to fall into the wall and bash her shoulder, making her wince in pain. The girl sat on the chair, Twyla, turned around quickly. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Oh my ghoul, I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t mean to-“</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Frankie looked at the purple and green haired ghoul and smiled awkwardly. “No, no, no need to worry, there’s no harm done. I should have looked where I was going.” She glanced down at the desk Twyla was sat on, and saw a piece of paper covered in colour and sketches before her. On closer inspection, it looked kind of like a squid-human hybrid. “Woah, that’s so cool. What is it?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Twyla bit her lip, clutching the drawing closer to her nervously. “I-it’s just a thing from a video game I like. It’s called Splatoon...”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Ooooh cool, what do you do in it?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The ghouls looked at Frankie in wonder, shocked that anyone was actually asking about her interests. “I-erm... you go around as like a squid human and you have to defeat all of these things called Octolings and shoot ink to cover the ground... it’s a pretty weird concept but it’s a good game...” Her voice was quite quiet and shaky so Frankie has to strain to hear her a little, but she didn’t mind.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Yeah, it does sound good. If you want, I’ll play it with you sometime!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Really...? You’d do that? Nobody ever really wants to play with me.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Yeah, of course! I bet they’re all just scared that you’ll beat them.” Frankie laughed softly, putting Twyla at ease a little.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I doubt it...” She said, smiling and tapping her foot nervously on the floor.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Okay, I’ll leave you to your drawing. See ya!” Frankie have Twyla a small salute, laughing, and the lavender-skinned ghoul gave her a small smile before returning to her drawing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Looking back around the room, Frankie wandered over to the bookshelf that covered one half of the wall to the far left of the space. She scanned the titles, looking for something interesting to read, before she felt a light hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see Ghoulia next to her, and followed the zombies gaze to see she was pointing at a book. Frankie picked it out and looked at the cover - it looked pretty interesting, a mad scientists project goes all wrong and he creates a hybrid of all the known monsters in the world, and has to try and reverse before it destroys everything. Frankie looked up from the book to see Ghoulia giving her an awkward smile.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Thanks Ghoulia. I’ll read this tonight if I get a chance.” Frankie returned the smile to Ghoulia. “By the way, can I try on your glasses!? They look absolutely voltageous, I love the colour!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ghoulia pondered the idea for a second before carefully taking off her glasses and handing them slowly to Frankie, while squinting quite profusely as she tried to see her surroundings.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Frankie put the glasses on and began blinking rapidly to adjust her eyesight. She had to admit, Ghoulia was pretty blind ; she could hardly see her hand in front of her with these on!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Woahhhhh, these are trippy!” Frankie looked at her blurred surroundings before returning the glasses to Ghoulia, who was nodding in agreement. “Thanks for letting me try them on!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Frankie wandered off again, and spun around randomly. There wasn’t much to do here to be completely honest, but that could just be her. Everyone else seemed pretty content-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In her sort of dream-like state she had managed to bash into Cleo accidentally, and the two had both been sent sprawling onto the floor. Frankie stood back up, quickly brushing herself off before going to help Cleo up. “I’m so sorry-“</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Please watch where you’re going next time, newbie. Some of us prefer to be standing rather than on the floor.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Y-Yeah. Sorry about that.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“It’s fine. Just be careful.” Cleo grabbed Frankies hand and stood up, checking quickly I make sure none of her clothes were torn or ripped, which they fortunately were not.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“If you don’t mind me asking, how do you know sign language to communicate with Ghoulia? It just seems really cool.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well me and Ghoulia here go way back. And there wasn’t much to do when I was trapped in the pyramids, so I tried to make use of my time. And I guess it came in handy.” Cleo smiled slightly - it was nice to be the only one who could talk to Ghoulia properly, it made her feel important. And it was good for Ghoulia too, since it meant she actually had a voice, kind of.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Wow, that’s great. Okay, I won’t bother you any more. I’m still really sorry for bumping into you.” Frankie flopped down onto the sofa quickly, closing her eyes before being interrupted by Sally coming in through the door.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Hey girls! It’s dinner time. So everyone please go to the canteen.” Sally smiled at them all, until she took a glance at the TV which had the big Wii Sports logo plastered across it. She frowned, but said nothing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The ghouls all wandered over to the double doors of the canteen and filed in. Frankie took a look at the menu they had on that day, before deciding on just sausages and mashed potatoes with ketchup. She got her meal and sat down at the closest table, before being joined by Abbey, Clawdeen and Draculaura. Since there was only 4 to a table, that meant Ghoulia, Twyla and Cleo were sat separately, and Lagoona was nowhere to be seen, even in the corner Frankie had seen her sat in before.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She started eating happily, and was pleasantly surprised by how nice the food actually was - in terms of hospital food, it was pretty great. She devoured it pretty quickly and then pushed her plate aside. She looked at the meals the others in her table had gotten ; Clawdeen had a curry with rice, Abbey had some sort of steak with chips and Draculaura, who had been looking wearily at the meat on the other threes plate the entire time, had a garden salad.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>After taking a sip of water, Frankie spoke up. “So, what do you guys think of the others? Like are you all friends?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Draculaura was the first to speak up. “Well yeah, we’re all a pretty close knit family. We kind of have to be, since we’re all forced to be together so much.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Clawdeen nodded in agreement. “Yeah, even though we can all get annoying at times. I mean, I’m pretty moody on my bad days, Laura here is pretty talkative, Abbey has a tendency to punch things” she gestured to the far wall as she said this, which has a series of weird-shaped boards which Frankie assumes was to cover holes, “Cleo can get pretty controlling, Lagoona’s always energetic and makes us all do stuff, Twyla’s really quiet and shy and well, Ghoulia can only communicate through Cleo or by writing what she wants to say. We all have our freaky flaws but we love each other really.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>On the mentioning of ‘loving each other,’ Abbey pulled a face. “If you think I love Cleo, you sorely mistaken. She annoys me too much.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Frankie looked at Draculaura inquisitively, and she explained. “When Abbey first came here she accidentally knocked a picture frame in Cleo’s room off and it smashed. So Cleo got revenge and soaked Abbey’s bed. They’ve been at each others throats ever since.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“She start it! I was only trying to look around an I apologised after! She is in wrong, not me.” Frankie shook her head as the yeti said this.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You should be the bigger person Abbey, and go up to her after this and apologise. Then you might even see you like each other, instead of having to be enemies!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“No, I try that already and she just turn and walk away. It no use.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well, you can always try again.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>After they all finished their meals, the four ghouls stood up and pushed their chairs under the tables neatly. They walked out back into the corridor and walked over to the intersection in the hallway.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You guys wanna come see my room? I’ve decorated it a bit so it doesn’t look too bad.” Frankie exclaimed happily, little sparks of electricity coming out of her bolts, much to Draculaura’s amusement. They all nodded and made their way toward Frankie’s room. On their way, they saw Lagoona curled up into a ball outside of the bathroom, sniffing quietly while a nurse spoke softly to her. The ghouls walked past as quietly as they could to not disturb her, and closed the door behind them softly. Clawdeen was the first to talk.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“She’s going to get sectioned. I know she just laughs when they bring it up but she’s going to eventually. I mean, she can’t even walk into the dining room at dinner anymore...”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I know,” the vampire began, “I just wish we could help. But they don’t let us.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well, ghouls, why don’t we try and change that.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Ghoulfriends and Gummybears</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The ghoulfriends try to help a sea-monster in need out, but things turn a little south.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sally sighed and looked at the four ghouls in front of her, shaking her head. "Girls, I'm touched you want to help Lagoona but I'm afraid I can't let you. The nurses here are professionals and we're trying to do all we can."</p><p>Clawdeen looked at Sally with a steely glare, her ears twitching from side to side. "Sally please. Lagoona trusts us more than any of you guys, we can help! If she got sectioned it would break her. We don't want to lose her and her personality like that, but if you let us help, even just for one mealtime, we could make a difference."</p><p>The others nodded along with Clawdeen, eager to help the friend. Lagoona was the kindest person on the ward, and none of them wanted to lose that - even Frankie, who had known the girl for all of 6 hours, could tell how good of a ghoul she was.</p><p>Sally looked at the clipboard in her hand, and sighed again. "You do realise this is all completely against the hospital protocols and rules right? Logistically I just can't let you do this alone."</p><p>Frankie piped up quickly, little sparks of electricity flying from her bolts, one of which shocked Abbey enough to make her jump and stumble over. "Well, we don't have to be alone. We can have a nurse watching over us, so that if it gets too out of hand they can step in."</p><p>Sally knew they were right, and begrudgingly nodded. "Okay. One time just to see how things go. There's still 15 minutes of Dinner left so, go ahead. I'll get Jack to watch over you ghouls." The nurse walked out of her office to locate her co-worker and the girls formed a circle. </p><p>"Okay then," Draculaura started, "How exactly are we going to do this?"</p><p>"Well.... the nurses said that Lagoona wouldn't enter the dining room right? Well, why don't we try bringing dinner to her instead? It would be a much less formal environment so it might put her at ease, and we can go at her pace and all that." Clawdeen explained to the other ghouls, picking at her nails nervously. The others nodded their heads in agreement.</p><p>"Okay, me and Frankie go get meal, Draculaura and Clawdeen set up place to eat. If we do both at same time, we save time!"  Abbey grinned.</p><p>"Okay, get Jack to help you pick. Meet us in the lounge in 10 minutes!" Draculaura ran off happily to prepare, followed by Clawdeen, who was shaking her head at her vampire teammate.</p><p>Frankie turned to Abbey, smiling slightly. "Well then, we've got no time to waste! Let's get our fishy friend some food!" The two walked down the corridor and toward the canteen.</p><p>"It's awful, isn't it. Lagoona seems like such a clawsome person, I hope she ends out alright." Frankie frowned.</p><p>"Yes, it is truly awful. She has boyfriend who visit her every week, and it so sad to see them together. They look like they are made for eachother, like the snow is made for the mountain." Abbey remarked as they opened the creepeteria doors.</p><p>Jack Skellington, one of the other nurses and rumoured to be Sally's boyfriend,  was waiting for them.</p><p>"Okay ghouls, so Lagoona didn't have breakfast or lunch today, so we have to try and make us for some of the food she lost. So I've narrowed it to three options, you can pick."</p><p>The ghouls looked over their choices of cuisine for their friend before deciding on a chicken pie with potatoes, carrots and peas. After getting a cup of water to accompany the meal, the trio made their way to the lounge and set the food down on the table the vampire and werewolf had arranged next to the sofa. Although Clawdeen had seen no use for Lagoona to be sat at the sofa, Draculaura had explained it would provide a 'sense of comfort'.</p><p>And it was hard to beat that ghoul in an argument.</p><p>Abbey went off to get Lagoona and returned with her after a minute or so, and the seamonster looked very confused.</p><p>"Abbey, you said you'd loaded me Wii Sports, not that we were arranging a TV dinner for someone."</p><p>"Well I lie. Big deal."</p><p>"You still shouldn't lie, just saying." Lagoona looked at the food, a slight glint of fear in her eye as she took a step back. "So, who's getting the special treatment today, lads?"</p><p>Clawdeen took a step forward, seemingly taking control of the situation, much to the others gratitude. "Lagoona, take a seat, 'kay?"</p><p>Biting her lip, Lagoona took a seat, staying as far from the food as she could. "So, c-can someone explain?"</p><p>Clawdeen took a long, almost shaky breath as she looked Lagoona in the eye. "Lagoona, were worried about you. You need to eat. And we're here to help you."</p><p>Lagoona spluttered. "Seriously, that's what all of this is about? I'm eating, guys, honest! Don't worry about me."</p><p>"Lagoona, don't lie. What did you have for lunch?"</p><p>"Nothing...."</p><p>"Breakfast?"</p><p>"Nothing...."</p><p>"The day before?"</p><p>"N-nothing." Lagoona has began to tremble now, and she stood up hastily. "Look, I get the point okay? I-I have to go do-"</p><p>"Lagoona, please just sit and listen to us!" The sound of Draculauras voice, which was on the verge of breaking, shocked everyone. Lagoona, almost scared of the vampire, sat down again reluctantly.</p><p>Clawdeen sighed and began again. "Lagoona you have to eat. We don't want to lose you. We don't want you to get sectioned. Because believe me, you're going to soon. And what's going to happen then? You can't say no to what they do then, you'll have to eat. Wouldn't you rather have that choice?"</p><p>"Clawdeen I won't get sectioned! It's a ton of bul-"</p><p>"Yes, you will." The werewolves eyes were filled with tears now, and it was those eyes that locked onto Lagoona's ones. "Lagoona we love you. We don't want that to happen to you. Because it is awful, trust me. But if you would just eat, you don't have to go through that. You won't become fat, you won't be a failure, you won't look awful. You'll just become you again."</p><p>The thin ghoul shook her head, trembling as she looked at the plate of food. "I-I... can't. I've worked so, so hard to look like this. To not be fat, to be in control of something for once in my life. If I eat it, they take the control away and it all comes spiralling down. I can't let that happen again...."</p><p>"It won't. Trust me. C"mon, sit next to the food okay? Just look at it." Lagoona slowly shuffled towards the plate, biting her lip and leaving little teeth indents in the skin. "This plate is the first hurdle of many. The first hurdle in the race of you becoming you again, being able to go swimming and play sports, being able to see your family, being able to live a normal life. All it takes is that first little hurdle and you're off. It's a constant battle but you're strong, my fishy friend. Stronger than any of us here and I know if someone can do it, it would be you."</p><p>Lagoona slowly picked up the fork next to her, her hand shaking with every movement, and speared a carrot on the outside of the plate. She raised it to her lips, her breathing hard and rapid, and....</p><p>She stood up. Ran out of the room, knocking everything over in a frenzy, still shaking. The other ghouls jumped back as the table and he plate of food fell onto her floor with an almighty crash, sending chicken pie everywhere. Clawdeen looked at the others, sighing.</p><p>"It's no use..."</p><p>Abbey stared at the werewolf coldly. "So much for 'taking it at her pace' Clawdeen. She ran off faster than yak after it see a large plate of meat in front of it."</p><p>"Now's not the time Abbey." Frankie put her hands to her forehead, biting her lip. "I'll go check if she's okay."</p><p>"You won't be long, right?" Draculaura asked quietly. Frankie gave the vampire a small smile to help calm her nerves.</p><p>"I'll be back in a jiffy."</p><p>Frankie moves from her perch next to the wall and walked out of the room towards the dormitories. She spotted the one that belonged to Lagoona almost instantly - it was covered in blue sequins and stickers and had a giant 'L' on the front. Frankie walked up to the door and opened it slightly, peeking her head around the edge.</p><p>She didn't see anything though - it was just a normal room. Very blue - blue fairy lights were everywhere with a bunch of pictures sellotaped to the walls of Lagoona before she was on the ward. There was a neat pile of books in he corner and her stationary was all arranged neatly to the side of her desk, with a large amount of moisturiser in the centre. And she had pillows - tons of pillows.</p><p>But she wasn't there.</p><p>Frankie shut the door again silently and walked back along the hallway silently. Then, in the corner of her eye, she saw something move in he bathroom. She turned to look at it and saw Lagoona curled in a ball, crying and shaking uncontrollably in the corner. Frankie stopped and stared at her for a second before walking slowly over and standing in the doorway.</p><p>"Lagoona...?" She spoke softly, so she didn't scare the already petrified ghoul any more. The sea monster looked up at Frankie, tears filling her eyes.</p><p>"P-please just leave me alone." </p><p>"I'm not going to do that." Frankie sat down next to the frail girl, and put an arm around her. "Look, Lagoona, you need to eat something. Even if it's something small. You need food to give you energy."</p><p>"But I can't... I have to be in control Frankie. And if I eat then I'm losing, I'm giving up, I'm failing. And I'm not one to lose."</p><p>"But don't you see?" Frankie grabbed Lagoona's hand and clutched it. "If you don't eat, then they'll section you. Then they have even more control than if you just eat."</p><p>"They won't section me." She said it with such conviction, clearly trying to convice herself it was true.</p><p>"But they will... look, if you just eat something small, like a few carrots or a potato, it's not going to end the world. It's going to help re-start it."</p><p>"But what if I don't want to re-start it...?" The seamonster looked up at Frankie sadly, and her face almost broke the latter's heart.</p><p>"Don't say that, Lagoona. You have so much to live for, so much life left to enjoy. Abbey told me you have a boyfriend, right? Well, if you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for him."</p><p>"He must be so disappointed in me. I've let him down..."</p><p>"No you haven't. I'm sure you're the strongest person he knows." Slowly and silently, Frankie reached for a stray packet of Hari-boos she had in her pocket. "Here, let's share these. This is how you can show how strong you are, Lagoona. Food doesn't have to be the enemy and it doesn't have to be scary, as long as you've got someone by your side."</p><p>Frankie handed the girl a gummy bear from the packet, and then got herself one. She thought back to what Lagoona said about not being one to lose, and a small idea sparked in her head, sending a small volt of electricity through her bolts.</p><p>"Here. I challenge you to a duel. Whoever can eat their gummy bear the fastest gets to re-decorate the other's room!"</p><p>"Oh Frankie, you're on." Both of the girls chucked the gummy bears into their mouths, chewing rapidly, until Lagoona threw her arms into the air in victory. "I can't wait to turn your room pink." The seamonster grinned.</p><p>"No fair! Best of three?"</p><p>"Oh you're going down, Frankie!"</p><p>It wasn't much, but it was a start.</p><p> </p>
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